Ivy Cornell and the Year Students Kept Getting Paralyzed
by SteamPoweredAce
Summary: Ivy Cornell is eleven, and she's gotten her letter from Hogwarts. Her family's already torn, with almost everyone in Gryffindow and Ravenclaw, but her father was in Hufflepuff. Now, Ivy need to prove to herself that she's not useless, prove that her side of the family isn't useless, and prove that Slytherins can be good. Please R&R, Concrit is welcome!
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note – Yes, yes, we all know the drill. Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and many of the things in this fic are not mine. So far, only the Cornell family belong to me, especially Ivy. I don't own the canon, I promise to night break it to much.

-I-

Ivy Cornell is eleven years old, and her letter from Hogwarts arrived this summer. Her first trip to Diagon Alley will be with her father, uncle, and cousins.

It's an awkward meeting. Her father doesn't talk much with his family, and Ivy's only met them twice before. Her uncle attempts to be friendly. He tells her about Floo Powder and Diagon Alley, and he has her cousins go first to show her how it works. Rosemary and Basil are less friendly. They look at her, judging her, as their father talks. Neither of them talk to her before they use the Floo Powder, and Rosemary only talks once they're on their way to Gringott's. She doesn't even say anything interesting; it's just another talk about wizarding money, and Ivy's father's already talked to her about this a dozen times, it feels like.

The trip to the vaults is terrifying. Ivy's only been on a roller coaster once, and this is far worse. The cart doesn't even have a safety harness. Basil fails to hide his snickering as she clings to her father's hand. By the time both vaults have been visited and they get back outside, Ivy's gone pale, and Basil has a small smirk on his face.

They all head to Madame Malkin's first. Basil and Rosemary have grown several inches over the past year, and Ivy needs her first ever school robes. Her father and uncle wait outside, and Rosemary tells Ivy about Ravenclaw as Madame Malkin fits them for their robes. On the way out, Basil talks about his house, Gryffindor. Ivy's not sure which one she'd like to be in. She's already heard about Hufflepuff from her father, the black sheep of the family.

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff," Ivy's father says when Basil's done. "There are lots of friends there, and they can be very loyal. Professor Sprout's a wonderful Head of House." Ivy's father looks at his nephew and niece like he's expecting them to say something. When he looks at his brother, Ivy's uncle just nods.

"Probably one of the nicest professors I ever met," he says. "I preferred Flitwick, of course, Sprout was a good one." Ivy's father gapes at his brother for a moment before nodding silently.

"All right, I think we'll buy books last..." Her father looks down at the list of things they need to buy. Ivy's gotten to look over it, and she's most interested in getting her wand and maybe a pet.

"Richard," her uncle says. "You want me to take her to Ollivader's while you go buy her potions equipment?" He looksover at his own children. "Rosemary and Basil will be fine on their own for a while." Ivy's father barely gets to say anything before she's being lead off towards Ollivander's.

"No matter what Basil or Rosemary or your grandparents say," her uncle tells her, "there is nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff. Your father was there, and he did well." He takes Ivy's hand and leads her to the store with a sign that read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

Ivy stares at the outside of the store. It doesn't look like much. The gold letters on the sign were peeling, and the only thing in the window was a single wand laying on an old purple cushion.

When she gets inside, though, everything is different. There are rows of shelves filled with boxes of wands. Ivy looks around in silence before she sees a man walking towards them from the shelves. He's old and his eyes are little strange to look at, so Ivy decides to look at the bridge of his nose instead.

"Ah, Mr. Ollivander!" Ivy's uncle holds out a hand. "This is my niece, Ivy. She got her Hogwarts letter this year, so we need to get her a wand." Ollivander politely shakes her uncle's hand, then turns his attention to her.

"Hmm. Now, Miss Cornell... Which is your wand arm?" he asks, pulling a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket.

"Er, I'm right handed?" Ivy says, holding out her right hand. Mr. Ollivader startes measuring her arm.

"No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns or dragons or phoenixes are the same. Olllivander wands are made with only the best cores, unicorn hair, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of a dragon's heart." He stops measuring and turns to the shelves of his shop. It take Ivy another few moments for her to realize that that the tape measure is still measuring her on its own. Ivy goes cross-eyed for a second when the tape goes to measure the distance between her eyes.

"That will do," Mr. Ollivader says, the the tape measure falls to the floor. "Miss Cornell, try this one." He hands her a wand and Ivy stares at it. "Cedar and dragon heartstring, ten inches, quite springy." Ivy looks at him and her uncle, and as she raises her hand to try waving the wand, Mr. Ollivander snatches it back.

"No, no, here-" He hands her another wand. "Ash and unicorn hair, nine and a quarter inches, unyielding." Ivy takes this wand too, but almost immediately it's grabbed back. Ivy shuffles back a little, staring at Mr. Ollivander.

"Try this one, beech and unicorn hair, twelve and three quarter inches," he holds out another wand for her to try, and after a moment, she takes it from him. When he doesn't immediately grab the wand back, Ivy tries waving it around. Nothing terribly exciting happens, but the tip of the wand starts to glow like a miniature star. Ivy looks up at the two adults, who are both pleased by this development. "Very good, Miss Cornell, very good."

Ivy lets him take the wand and put it in its box and wrap it. Ivy's uncle hands over seven Galleons, and Ivy leaves the store with her brand new wand.

Ivy and her uncle meet up with her father near Flourish and Blotts. There's no sign of either Rosemary or Basil, but Ivy doesn't mind. She's much more interested in the crowd around bookshop. Most of the people in line are either students or witches, it looks like, and the reason becomes clearer once they spot a large banner stretched across the shop's upper windows.

"Perhaps we should wait to buy the books tomorrow," Ivy's father suggests. "This line will take forever to get through." Her uncles shakes his head and grabs Ivy's arm, helping her get through the crowd and into the shop itself. There's an already giant line there, heading for the back of the shop where Lockhart can be seen signing books. It's another few minutes before Ivy's father joins them. They try to stay out of the line for the book signing, but the line takes up so much space, it ends up being easier to just go through it and grab the books they need as they pass them.

The highlight of the trip for books is when Lockhart grabs some poor kid out of line, makes him pose for pictures, and then announces that the kid and every other Hogwarts students is going to be very lucky that year. Ivy's father and uncle look at each other when Lockhart tells everyone that he'll be the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts. The kid is given a set of all of Lockhart's books while the crowd cheers, and Ivy watches him stagger away under the weight of the books.

"...Dad?" Ivy asks. "Are there any spells to make my school bag weigh less?"

"I'll show it to you before we pack everything away," her father promises.

There's a brawl a minute or two later, and Ivy tries to ignore it. She just wants her books so she can go look at animals. The school supply list says she can have either an owl or a toad or a cat, and Ivy's torn between a cat and an owl.

Ivy's handed a few of her school books by her uncle, who's already stuck holding books for both of his kids. He's glaring in Lockhart's direction. Seven books for one class, and all of them are large and unwieldy and written by the new professor himself.

It takes half an hour for them to escape the shop, and Rosemary and Basil are just outside, watching the crowd. Their father immediately hands off their books, and the twins are stuck carrying them around for the rest of the trip to Diagon Alley. It's not as bad as it could be though. There's only one stop left, and that's to get Ivy a pet.

The Magical Menagerie is crowded with all sorts of animals, and Ivy spends a minute staring a bunch of Puffskeins before she finally looks over at the cats. There are cats of all sorts there, napping or looking out at the people in the store. One large fluffy orange cat wasn't letting anything get near it.

Ivy's father watches as she tries to make friends with all the cats in the shop. Most ignore her, and the orange one looks entirely unimpressed when she offers her hand to it. There's a small grey cat that lets her pet it though, and soon Ivy's named it Mercury and is carrying it outside in a basket.

The last stop is the Leaky Cauldron, where they use Floo powder to return to Ivy's uncle's house. Basil and Rosemary are off before Ivy can say good-bye, but her uncle promises her that they'll keep an eye out for her at Hogwarts.

"Even if you're a Hufflepuff like your father was," her uncle said. "Though if you make it there, you shouldn't need them. I swear, when Richard and I were there, that House was more of a family for him than we were."

"It was certainly more comfortable there than at home..." her father mumbles.

"Well, anywhere you end up, they'll be your family while you're there." Her uncle gives her a slightly awkward hug and lets her go. "We'll see you on September first, Ivy, Richard."

"Thank you, Uncle Connor."


	2. Chapter 2

On September first, Ivy and her father go to King's Cross station and make their way to platforms nine and ten. Ivy's heard about it from her cousins and her father, but she's still excited to see it in person. She closes her eyes as she walks up to the barrier, and it's not until she hears the crowd of people and animals that she opens them again. Behind her, her father walks through the barrier and pushes her towards the train.

"The Hogwarts Express. It's amazing, isn't it?" her father asks. Ivy turns to look at him, her eyes wide. "Now come on, let's get you on the train before all the compartments are taken."

Her father has to help her get her trunk onto the train, but once it's up the steps, she manages to carry it to the first empty compartment all by herself, even while she's carrying Mercury's basket. It takes her a few tries to get the trunk up onto the luggage rack, but she's grinning when she finally manages it. The trunk's around her size, and she just managed to lift it over her head. Maybe by next year she'll be able to get the trunk onto the train herself too.

With her trunk taken care of, Ivy sits down near the window and pulls Mercury's basket into her lap. She's just reaching in to pat his head when the compartment door slides open again and a pair of students looks in. They both look about Ivy's age, and the boy's already wearing his uniform.

"Er, can we sit here?" the girl asks, twirling her hair in her fingers. The boy's fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves.

"Sure!" Ivy stands up to help the two get their trunks in and up to the luggage rack. It's easier with two people trying to lift the trunk up. Ivy makes sure to remember that for the next time.

Once the trunks are up and everyone's sitting down, the girl introduces herself. "I'm Sophie Grant, and this is Oliver Verde," she says, holding out her hand. Ivy politely shakes her hand, and is a little relieved that Oliver doesn't hold out his hand. "Are you a first year too?"

Ivy nods. "Just turned eleven last March, so I got my letter this summer. I'm Ivy Cornell, by the way." She smiles at the two sitting across the compartment from her. Sophie blinks at her, then grins.

"Do you have any siblings? Or cousins or something? My older sister's a Ravenclaw and keeps saying stuff about a classmate named Cornell." Ivy grimaces.

"That's my cousin, Rosemary. I'm hoping I don't have to be in Ravenclaw like her, though I don't think I'd want to be with Basil in Gryffindor either..." She shakes her head. Wherever she gets sorted, she's sure that it'll be a problem.

"Oh." Sophie tilts her head a little, squinting at Ivy. "So what House _do_ you think you'll be in?"

Ivy shrugs. "I don't know. I'm kinda hoping to be in Hufflepuff, honestly. My father was there, and he's told me good things about them. They're friendly and loyal and hard workers, and he still sends owls to friends of his from when he came here." Ivy smiles at Oliver and Sophie.

"Hufflepuff sounds like a nice House," Oliver said, his voice quiet. Ivy reaches out to gently pat his arm. "Not sure about any of the others though. My parent's are muggles, so this was one hell of a surprise to us all." Ivy nods.

"I can imagine. Well, Gryffindors are supposed to be brave and strong, and Ravenclaws are smart and wise and curious. And then there's Slytherin... Well, the ambitious and cunning are supposed to go there, but lots of the people there are kinda stupid and mean and got there just because they're purebloods." Ivy frowns.

"I want to be in Ravenclaw, with my sisters," Sophie says. "I'm coming her to learn everything I can. I heard that after your second year, you can take more classes, so I can't wait to see what those are."

"Oh, trust me," another boy says, leaning through the compartment door. "Those extra classes are not that fascinating." The boy looking in at them is taller and older, and there's a Gryffindor crest on his cloak. "Especially divination. It's mostly just us trying to make out shapes in tea leaves or smoke." He shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm Lux. I wasn't interrupting anything, was I? The three first years shake their head.

"Not really," Ivy said. We were just explaining the Houses to Oliver., and thinking about which House we'd get put in." She invites Lux in, holding her cat basket closer on her lap.

"Well, I hope I'll get to see one of you in Gryffindor," Lux says. "But I've got to go back to my friends a few compartments down. It's nice to see you all though!" Lux waves at them before leaving, and Oliver closes the compartment door again.

"Do either of you mind if I let my cat out?" Ivy asks. "I don't think he'll be okay spending the entire train ride stuck in here." To prove her point, Mercury lets out a piteous little meow.

"Oh, no, not at all!" Sophie grins and reaches for the basket. "What's your kitty's name?" Ivy opens the lid, and a small, lithe grey cat blinks around at them with his yellow eyes.

"He's named Mercury," Ivy tells them. "Dad let me get him when I got to go to Diagon Alley." She smiles down at the grey cat, who is currently stomping around her lap.

"Did either of you get anything?" They shake their heads.

"Mum wouldn't let me get an owl," Sophie says. "She said that I can use the school owls whenever I want to send a letter though, so I'll at least be able to keep in contact with her."

Oliver shakes his head again. "My sister's allergic to a lot of animals, so I couldn't get one. I'll have to have someone show me how to send a letter with an owl though..." Ivy smiles.

"Don't worry about that. You ought to be able to ask anyone in your House how to do it. Or I guess you could ask your Head of House, if you had to." Ivy frowns a little. "I'm not sure how friendly most of the Heads are, but I think Sprout would definitely help if you get into Hufflepuff." Oliver nods slowly.

"A- All right. That's the House I'm hoping for anyway..." He reaches his hand out towards Mercury. Mercury sniffs his hand once, then sits down in Ivy's lap.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - Real short chapter this time, but the next one is the Sorting and is much longer. It'll hopefully take less time to post than this one did too...

* * *

Ivy's first real glance of Hogwarts isn't a very good one. The sun set awhile ago now, and her night vision has never been the best. The most she makes out is an outline and several small dots of light as the boats make their way across the lake. When they pass through a curtain of ivy and into a tunnel, Ivy grabs hold of the side of the boat and looks around at the others with her. She can barely make out Oliver and Sophie, but they look like they're as nervous as she is. Only the fourth person in their boat looks undisturbed; they're slouching slightly with their arms crossed over their chest, looking entirely unimpressed with the whole thing.

By the time the boats reach a small harbour under the castle, Ivy is more than ready to get out and get Sorted. Even though it was only a short ride across a lake, Ivy's stomach feels like it's thinking about emptying itself. Ivy grabs the hand of the nearest person, and Oliver doesn't try to shake her off.

The groundskeeper, a giant man named Hagrid, leads the first years up a flight of stairs and to a huge oak door. Ivy watches with wide eyes as Hagrid knocks on the door, and when the door swings open, she tries to hide behind Oliver. It doesn't work very well – Oliver's an inch shorter than she is. The woman in green robes who answered the door doesn't pay any attention to her though, and when she opens the door further, Ivy lets go of Oliver's hand.

They're all lead into the castle proper, stopping when they reach a small chamber off of the hall. The woman introduces herself as Professor McGonagall, and gives them a brief talk about the Houses and how they'll be like family for the students while at Hogwarts.

"While at Hogwarts, good behaviour will earn points for your House," Professor McGonagall says, "and rule breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup. I hope each of you will be a credit to the House you are placed in." She looks around at all the first years, her eyes landing on Ivy's messy ponytail, Oliver's slightly crooked glasses, and another girl's cloak fastening.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in front of the school. Until then, I suggest you make yourselves presentable." As Ivy as the other start to sort themselves out, Professor McGonagall adds, "I shall return for you when we are ready. Please wait quietly." She leaves the chamber, and Ivy undoes her ponytail.

"Do you know how we get sorted?" Oliver asks her. He takes off his glasses and starts trying to clean them.

"My dad said something about a hat," Ivy whispers. She pulls as much of her hair back as she can.

"We have to put on a hat," says another girl. Ivy recognizes her as the fourth person in her boat. "And it decides where we go." The girl shakes her head. "As if a hat can tell anything about us." She sniffs.

"Oh..." Oliver puts his glasses back on and blinks owlishly at Ivy. "Sounds... interesting."

Ivy doesn't have time to open her mouth before Professor McGonagall returns. She tells the students to form a line, and once they've done that, she has them follow her from the chamber and across the hall through the large set of double doors and into the Great Hall.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N - I'd like to apologize right now for any mistakes. I'm very American and doing this all by myself, and while that isn't an excuse, I'm still terribly sorry. Thank you for understanding, and now, I'll let you get back to the story.

* * *

Ivy and the other first years look around in awe. The ceiling's been replaced with the sky, and there are thousands of little candles lighting the hall, floating in midair above four tables where the older students are already sitting. Ivy can spot her cousins at the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. A fifth table's at the head of the hall, and Ivy can spot Lockhart up there. There are at least a dozen ghosts around the hall, chatting with each other or other students.

McGonagall placing a stool in front of the line of first years draws Ivy's attention. It draws everyone's attention, in fact. Out of the corners of her eyes, she can see that just about everyone else in the hall is looking at the old hat on the stool.

There's just enough time for Ivy and the other first years to be confused, and then the hat starts to sing. She stares at the hat, more focused on the fact that it's singing than what it's telling them. She knows about the Houses anyway, or three of them anyway, but a talking hat? That's new and strange.

The hat finishes singing, everybody in the hall starts applauding, and then Professor McGonagall steps up with a roll of parchment in her hands.

The hall falls quiet as the Professor starts to say, "When I call your name, you will come forward and put on the hat to be sorted." She looks at the line of first years in front of her, and then calls out "Ackerman, Lesley!"

A girl nervously makes her way from near the back of the line to the front of the hall, where she sits on the stool. Professor McGonagall places the hat on the girl's head, and almost immediately it roars, "RAVENCLAW!" McGonagall takes the hat off the girl's head, and Lesley makes her way to the table second from the left, where she's met with cheers.

Ivy starts fiddling with her sleeves. They're going in alphabetical order, of course. That's always how it goes. Which means soon she'll hear her name called...

She bites her lip and stares ahead at the hat while a boy with curly hair gets out of line. He gets put in Ravenclaw too, and then another boy gets sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Cornell, Ivy!" Professor McGonagall calls. Ivy gets nudged out of line by Sophie, who smiles and nods at her, and she walks up to the front of the hall. As she turns to sit on the stool, she glances around for her cousins. She swears she sees a hint of fear on the faces of the students around them, but then the hat's placed on her head, and she can't see a thing.

She swears she can hear the hat think. It knows she wants to prove herself, prove to her grandparents that you don't have to be a Gryffindor or Ravenclaw to be any good, that she wants to do _something_ , though she's not sure what yet.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouts. It's pulled off her head, and she's not sure who's more surprised – her cousins or herself.

She makes her way to the table that's cheering for her, sitting down next to a girl with dark hair. The girl smiles at her and offers her hand as "Creevey, Colin!" is sorted into Gryffindor. Ivy takes it and gives a brief shake before pulling her own hand back.

"Cornell, eh?" she asks. "The other two have a younger sister they never mention?"

Ivy shakes her head slowly. The idea of having two older siblings is slightly frightening. "They're my cousins..."

The older girl sighs with what looks like relief. "Oh thank god," she says. Another girl sits down on the other side of Ivy, and the older Slytherin girl finally introduces herself. "I'm Isobel, Isobel Richelieu. You'd better not be as obnoxious as your cousins," she adds, looking right at Ivy.

Then she looks back at the Sorting. Ivy looks that way too, just in time to see Sophie wearing the hat when it shouts "RAVENCLAW!" Ivy tries to not look too put out. She was really hoping that she'd get to be in the same House as either Sophie or Oliver, and if Sophie's not a Slytherin too, Oliver probably won't be either.

"I'm Titania DeSilva," the girl on the other side of Ivy says. Ivy looks at her, noticing the gold hair first, then the girl's tiny upturned nose and her bright blue eyes.

Ivy looks at the spot between the girl's eyes before saying, "Ivy. It's nice to meet you." She doesn't offer to shake hands like Isobel does. Titania shakes Isobel's hand.

"Pleasure." Isobel gives Titania an appraising look, then focuses back on Ivy. "Well, Cornell, you'd better be as good as your cousins are. They're right awful to be around, but they're at least _smart_." Isobel glares in the direction of the Gryffindor table. "Bloody embarrassing, they're half the reason either of their houses get any points."

Ivy bites her lip. "Er, well, I don't really know."

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouts again, sending a tall boy to the table.

"Can't be worse than two of last year's new students," Isobel mutters. "It's a miracle we nearly won last year."

"I thought this House was supposed to be for those with _cunning_ ," Titania says. "How could anyone be that bad?"

Isobel looks around quickly before leaning past Ivy and saying, "Their families were in this House, and they didn't have any of the traits for anywhere else." Isobel snorts and looks back at the Sorting. The hat sends a kid to Hufflepuff, and a 'Lovegood, Luna' is called up.

"We'll make up for them," Titania promises. "They'll never beat us."

Ivy can see Isobel smirk. She knows she'll do her best this year, but she can't make any promises. It's a sure thing that her cousins can earn more points than she can.

"MacAdams, Helena," gets sorted into Hufflepuff, and then "McArthur, Alistair" becomes a Ravenclaw. Ivy swears they get much louder welcomes from their tables than any of the new Slytherins have so far. Ivy hopes that just means the other Houses are more expressive, and not that Slytherins hate new people.

When "Verde, Oliver" finally gets called up to put on the hat, Ivy watches intently. There's no way he'll be a Slytherin, but maybe he'll at least be a Ravenclaw with Sophie. Oliver is stuck with the hat on his head for a full minute before it shouts, "HUFFLEPUFF!" He looks towards Ravenclaw and shrugs as he makes his way to his new table.

Ivy takes a moment to despair, but then Titania prods her shoulder and says, "You'll get to see them in class." Titania doesn't sound happy about it.

"Ward, Siobhan" becomes the last new Hufflepuff, and the last person left is a redheaded girl named "Weasley, Ginevra." The hat barely touches her head before it shouts "GRYFFINDOR!"

"No surprise there," Isobel says. Ginevra runs off to the Gryffindor table, where another three students with red hair are cheering the loudest for her.

The Hall falls silent as the man sitting in the middle of the table at the head of the hall, presumably the Headmaster, stands up. He's smiling at everyone, his arms open in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome," he says, "to another year at Hogwarts. I only have a couple of words to say before our dinner- tuck in!" The man sits down, and when Ivy looks back at the table, there's suddenly food everywhere.

"Oh!" Ivy's eyes widen at the sight. Her parents are good cooks, but everything here looks more delicious than even her mother's Sunday dinners. She helps herself to a little of everything she can reach, grabbing a second helping of roast potatoes before she's full.

"Do we eat like this every day?" a boy a bit further down the table asks.

"Pretty much," Isobel confirms. "And there's dessert too."

Ivy briefly wonders how nobody at the school is the size of a boat yet, but gets distracted by someone holding a goblet and talking about pumpkin juice. Then she's left wondering why muggles don't have anything like it when she tastes it herself.

"Just be careful in the mornings," Isobel says. "That's when the owls deliver mail, and some of them like to wait on the tables for treats." Ivy pauses for a second, then looks at Isobel.

"Are we going to be able to send letters home tonight, or will we have to wait until tomorrow?"

"You can write tonight, but we're not allowed to the owlery at night." Isobel picks up her own goblet. "Don't worry, parents know not to expect anything from their children immediately."

"Oh. Er. All right." Ivy can get an older student to help her around lunch then.

She hopes her family isn't too upset.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N - There are quotes from the book in this chapter, because it's the first morning at Hogwarts and I think we all remember the Howler.

* * *

When dinner's finished and the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, has made a speech, a pair of older Slytherin students call over all the first years. Once the ten or so students gather around them, they lead the group out of the Great Hall.

Ivy looks around in amazement as they make their way through the castle. Her own house is nothing like Hogwarts. She and her parents live in a muggle neighbourhood, with a mostly normal house and where the only moving pictures are on the television. The suits of armour and the moving paintings and the _castle_ are incredible.

By the time the older pair of students come to a stop in front of a bare stone wall, Ivy's already planning on what to include in her first letter home.

"This," the older boy says, "is the entrance to the common room. The password changes every fortnight, and without it, you can't get in." He gives the first years a look for a moment until the older girl elbows him.

"Parseltongue," the girl says.

A previously unseen stone door opens up, and the first years are ushered into the common room. Everyone takes a moment to look around, and Ivy stares at the windows on one side of the room. She's not sure where exactly they are in the castle, but she could've sworn they'd gone down, and windows underground don't seem right.

"Is- Is that the lake?" one of the first year boys asks.

"It is, but you'll get a much better look at it in the morning. Now, boys, Apollonius will show you to your dorm. Girls, come with me." Ivy and Titania glance at each other before following the older student, and Ivy yawns. They're lead through a door, down a hall filled with other doors, and are stopped at the one on the end. "This is your dorm. Your stuff's in there already."

A girl with her hair in a plait opens the door, and everyone looks at the room. There are four-poster beds with green curtains, one for each girl, with the girls' trunks resting at the foot of each bed.

"Have a good night," they're told as they file into the room. Once all of them are inside, Titania closes the door.

"Who's got the cat?" the girl with the plait asks. "I think he's claimed a bed for you." Ivy makes her way to the bed the girl's at, and Mercury meows.

"He's mine," Ivy says. She gives Mercury a few pets, then makes her way to her trunk for find her pajamas. The other girl quietly coos at Mercury for a moment before heading to her own trunk.

"Lucky," she says. "My parents wouldn't let me get a pet this year."

"Not even an owl?" Titania asks from the other side of the room.

"My parents have two, and said they didn't want another animal in the house."

Ivy turns away from the girls to change into her pajamas. As soon as she's done, she climbs into bed. Mercury complains, but goes and curls up next to her head anyway. Ivy yawns again.

"I'm Morgan," the girl with the plait says. "It's nice to meet you two."

As Ivy closes her eyes, she hears another girl say, "My name's Jill." She's asleep before the last girl has a chance to introduce herself.

The next morning, Ivy wakes up to a tiny paw pressing against her nose. She blinks her eyes open and Mercury stops trying to... whatever he's trying to do. He stays out of the way while Ivy and the other girls dress, thankfully, but there's no such luck when they try to leave for breakfast. Ivy nearly trips over him, and she has to stick him in her bag to get him to stop.

The little silver cat purrs all the way to the Great Hall.

Breakfast isn't as impressive as last night's dinner was. There's porridge, toast, bacon, and eggs. Ivy wishes for pancakes as she fills her plate with bacon and toast.

"I can't believe you brought your cat to breakfast," Titania mutters after a minute. "He's already trying to steal food." Ivy looks down to see Mercury attempting to get a slice of bacon.

"I'm going to drop him back off at the dorm after breakfast." Ivy cuts off a little piece of bacon and offers it to Mercury.

She has to cut off another piece when what looks like a hundred owls enter the hall. The sight of the birds nearly sends the kitten diving under the table, but the bacon helps. For another minute or so, anyway.

Ivy is not the only one who jumps at the sound of someone yelling. Morgan spills her drink by accident, and someone drops their spoon. Something pointy digs into Ivy's legs, but she's too busy looking around for what's going on to notice.

"- _I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU_ -"

Silverware and plates rattle. Ivy can see people at the other tables looking towards the Gryffindor table too.

"- _DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS_ -"

As the scolding goes on, more and more people turn their heads. Ivy feels sorry for whoever's being yelled at.

"- _AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME_."

Everything's quiet for a few seconds, and then a few people laugh, including someone from further down the Slytherin table. Ivy turns back to the table and looks at Titania and Morgan.

" _What_ ," she asks, "was _that_?" Morgan takes a second to shrug, then goes back to mopping up her drink.

"That was a Howler," a boy sitting across the tables says. "They, er, do that."

"Probably Weasley and Potter's fault," someone says. "You heard what happened last night?"

"What, they actually flew a car here?" the first boy asks. "You've got to be joking."

A slice of Ivy's bacon goes missing.

"I've got last night's _Evening Prophet_ here." A newspaper is passed down the table, and Ivy stares at the headline.

"Wow..."

"Why would anyone want one of those to fly?" Titania asks.

"Guess they want to avoid traffic?" Morgan suggests.

"It would have to be invisible before you could use it for that. Just _look_ at this article... Six or seven muggles saw this, and they reported it to _someone_." The boy across the table shakes his head. "Bet that caused some trouble for someone."

"Surprised they didn't get expelled," someone says, a bit more loudly than they need to.

"Oh, shut up," Ivy hears Isobel say.

Morgan nudges Ivy's arm and says, "Your bacon's being stolen." Ivy looks down to see Mercury trying to steal another slice of bacon, the crumbs of the first slice still on her pants leg. Ivy sighs.

"Definitely going to leave him in the dorm after we're done."

"Just don't leave until you get your schedules, okay?" Isobel says. "You'll need to know when you have which classes. There's no map, but you should be able to find the rooms on your own. Potions is in the dungeons, by the way."

"Oh." Ivy takes back her bacon and eats it, holding a hand over Mercury to stop him from climbing onto the table.

"You shouldn't have brought him with you." Titania offers a bit of egg to the kitten anyway.

"You saw me try to stop him," Ivy mutters, piling bacon up on a slice of toast. "And he can't be any worse than some of those owls were." She's just putting a second slice of toast on top when one of the professors starts walking down the table, handing out schedules to students.

"I hope we have Defense Against the Dark Arts today," Morgan says. "Did you see the professor for it?" Morgan is given a schedule, and then Ivy's handed another one. "I hope he's as good at teaching as he is at looking nice." Titania snorts.

"No, we have Transfiguration first, it looks like," Titania says. "You'll want to make sure you leave your cat in the dorm for that."

"As soon as I've eaten." Ivy looks down at Mercury. "This is _my_ breakfast, not yours."

Mercury tries to climb up onto the table again.


	6. Chapter 6

AN - Well. This is later than I planned. Whoops? It's summer now though, so I can focus on writing instead of classes for a while. Maybe I can get some of this done during Camp NaNo next month.

* * *

There are no maps of the castle, and none of the first years have any idea of where their classes are. It takes Ivy and Morgan and Titania most of the time between breakfast and Transfiguration to find the classroom, and they're not the last students to make their way through the doors.

The professor is a cat, and Ivy falls in love with the idea and possibilities of transfiguration almost immediately. She understands why she was told to leave Mercury in the common room though. Professor McGonagall gives demonstrations, and a lot of things seem to involve transfiguring animals. At least they start out simple.

First Professor McGonagall has them take notes. Lots of notes, and Ivy's pretty sure she'll need to write them again later because she still can't write well with a quill. When notes are done, they get to try transfiguring something. Nobody turns their matchstick into a needle, but a couple of Ravenclaws get closer than everyone else.

Ivy's second class of the day isn't as interesting. Despite the professor being a ghost and it being a history class, Ivy spends most of the hour staring at the front of the room while trying to stay awake and listening to Professor Binns drone on. Nobody takes notes. When the hour's over, only Titania has anything written down, and it trails off three sentences in.

"We'll have to find time to read about this stuff," Morgan says on the way to lunch. "I can't believe I fell asleep. I _never_ fall asleep." Ivy looks over at some of the Ravenclaws they were in class with. Some of them look as disbelieving as Morgan.

"You're not the only one," Ivy tells Morgan. "I don't think I'm going to like this class." Not if it's always like that.

"I hope Charms is better."

"It'd be impossible for it to be worse," Titania points out. Ivy can't disagree. Neither can Morgan.

Ivy hurries through lunch so she can check on Mercury and start writing a letter home before she has to find where Charms is. Not much writing gets done. Mercury demands love and attention and takes over the table that Ivy tries to use to write. By the time he's been appeased, Ivy has to run out of the common room and try to use the castle stairs.

Easier said than done. Ivy is far from the only first year who gets stuck on a landing.

Professor Flitwick is probably one of the nicest professors, at least. He's friendly and isn't bad at teaching. He also doesn't put everyone to sleep. Ivy's notes are still hard to read, but she at least has them. Even better, the notes are less complicated than the ones for Transfiguration. She doesn't think she'll have to rewrite them later.

Everything has to be better than the first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson though. Lockhart's nice to look at, but that's about it. The very first thing he does is talk about himself. He attempts to tell a joke that falls flat and he only gets a few awkward giggles from some of the girls. And then he says the words that every student dreads.

"I thought we could start with a little quiz." He smiles winsomely. Next to Ivy, Morgan smiles back awkwardly.

The quiz is on his books. All seven of them. And it turns out to have more than fifty questions and take half an hour. Ivy's barely read _one_ of the books, let alone all of them. She puts down guesses for most of the questions and wonders how grades work at Hogwarts.

When the half hour is up, Lockhart gathers all of the quizzes up and takes a little to look through them and shake his head in disappointment. Nobody remembers most of the answers, and Lockhart tells everyone they need to pay more attention when they read the books. The rest of the hour is spent listening to Lockhart talk about himself and what the class is supposed to be.

When class ends, Ivy can't get out of the room fast enough. Neither can most of the boys and Titania.

Once they're far enough away, complaints start. "Is he going to actually _teach_ us anything?" Titania asks. "All of the questions on the quiz were about him!" She glares back towards the classroom.

"The books really weren't that much better," one of the Hufflepu boys says. "All those questions were _from_ the books." Titania sniffs and storms off.

"Oh..." Ivy takes a deep breath. "I don't want to read the books."

An hour later, and Ivy's copied two sentences of notes from Titania and rewritten her Transfiguration notes. Another piece of parchment is on the table, and Ivy chews on her lip as she tries to figure out what to write. She has to mention she's in Slytherin at some point, if only because otherwise it'll come from Ivy's cousins or uncle instead of her.

Eventually, she just starts the letter with _I'm in Slytherin_ , and from there she writes about the windows in the common room and the castle and classes.

 _I don't think I'm going to like Professor Lockhart at all_ , she writes. _Over half the first lesson was entirely about him, and there was a 'little' quiz that was supposed to be about how much we'd gotten from the books. Except it was fifty-four questions and entirely about him._

Ivy takes a deep breath and looks up at the ceiling. She doesn't have a good feeling about Defense Against the Dark Arts.

 _I'll write another letter on Friday or Saturday. I just thought you should know what House I'm in. I love you_ , she finishes with, then attempts to sign her name.

As she sets down her pen, she asks the Common Room at large, "Where's the owlery?"


End file.
